Compositions / Lago

In 2011 Lago was approached by Eva van Grinsven, Ramon Lormans (Sax & Stix) and Adriaen Feyaerts (‘Music Knights’) to write a piece based on 17th century songs by the then resident of Castle Horst (Belgium) Jacobus van Nethen. Lago chose three of these songs as the base for the ‘Canciones Flamencas’, a suite of both virtuoso and lyrical variations.

Every year a dutch composer (or composer residing in the Netherlands) is asked to write a composition for National Memorial Day to be premiered in the Nieuwe Kerk in presence of HRH Queen Beatrix, members of Parliament etc. , thus commemorating the victims of war in the Netherlands and abroad. In 2011 this honour fell on Lago. ‘Bloemen in Stilte’ is based on texts by schoolchildren and the silence is the two minute silence that is kept nationwide on the 4th of May at 8 pm. The music is not overcomplicated and intentionally so because it has to be singable by amateur children choirs.

Al Norte de los Pirineos (2010) (small wind ensemble)

‘Al Norte de los Pirineos’ was written for JONG Ensemble, a group of young musicians that decided to continue as an ensemble after their period as JONG NBE, the parallel ensemble for young musicians of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble.
Their request was to write a piece that would fit in a concert program with French music as a final piece and thus had to be both exciting and ‘french’.
‘Al Norte de los Pirineos’ (North of the Pyrenees (= mountain range that forms the frontier between Spain and France)) is the musical answer to that request. It is extremely virtuoso, especially for the bass marimba, and exciting. And that it is ‘french’ comes very natural, I have a deep admiration for french composers such as Debussy, Ravel and Rameau and I am definitely strongly influenced by their musical language.

premiere: November 7 2010 at de Toonzaal, Den Bosch, The Netherlands by several amateur saxophone quartets and the Amstel Quartet ‘Tres Encuentros’ was written for the Otto Mani Saxophone Quartet Competition in ‘s Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. This is a competition for amateur saxophone quartets and I was asked to write three pieces for three different levels. I decided to write a suite of three pieces that can be performed separately or as a full suite; ‘Tres Encuentros’ (Three Encounters). Every movement is dedicated to a composer that I admire and carries both his signature and my own.

The first movement ‘Encuentro con Astor Piazzolla’ is written for the intermediate level and is rhythmically quite challenging. At the core of this movement is a three note motive that starts and ends the piece. The second movement ‘Encuentro con Jean-Philippe Rameau’ is a slow movement with a lovely melody that is a paraphrase on Rameau’s Castor et Pollux’s Scène Funèbre. It was written for the beginner’s level but obviously keeping in mind that playing saxophone quartet already requires some skills and is not possible for a ‘real’ beginner. The third movement ‘Encuentro con Steve Reich’ is the most complicated movement, both individually and for the ensemble. Apart form the minimalistic influence of Reich I also borrowed a melodic phrase from Strawinsky’s Sacre, precisely as the old master himself did….

First and second movement are either SATB or AATB, the third movement is SATB only.order sheetmusic € 25 (score and parts)

Visión Apocalíptica II (2010) (piano)

As in the other visions the material is scarce and strictly handled. One pentatonic scale (in its first appearance c# e f# a# b) in various transpitions and that’s it. This limited material is a metaphore for the limit of all times, for the limit of being. I wrote the piece for my dear friend Ivo Janssen whose musicianship is a great inspiration for me (ao his Bach recordings are fascinating). He is a very virtuoso pianist and that gave me the opportunity to write without limits…
I have written two more visions sofar: ‘Visión Apocalíptica I’ for trombone quartet and saxophone quartet and ‘Visión Apocalíptica III’ for bass trombone and harp. I hope to write more as the ‘Apocalypse’ remains a mistery and inspiration for me.

Ser Padre (2010) (solo trp, solo trb / brass ensemble)

‘Ser Padre’ was a request from my friends André Heuvelman (solo trumpet with the Rotterdam Philharmonic) and Jörgen van Rijen (solo trombone with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra) and the (Rotterdam) Codarts Brass Ensemble, conducted by Hendrik-Jan Renes. Finally the piece has been recorded by my dear friend Alexander Verbeek (first trombone at the Rotterd.Phil.) ‘Ser Padre’ (‘Being a Father) is about fatherhood; this mixture of great joy and great responsibility. Where most of my work is very severely organized and sober in its use of material ‘Ser Padre’ is quite the contrary. It is (to my standards that is) a very eclectic and ‘wild’ piece with a light and expecting introduction, a ‘bigband’-like main theme that bursts with energy followed by an almost arabic second theme that highlights the lyrical qualities of both soloists. I wrote the piece both in the Netherlands and in Indonesia and the end is definitely inspired by the tropical warmth.

In the spring of 2009 I was asked by the JONG ENSEMBLE, a new and wonderful dutch wind ensemble, to write a piece for their concert program ‘Croque Monsieur’, dedicated to french music. They knew of my deep affinity for french music and thought works by me would add to this program. In the same time I was asked to write three obligatory works for a saxophone quartet competition in the south of the Netherlands. This became a three movement piece called ‘Tres Encuentros’ (Three Meetings) and the slow middle movement of these ‘meetings’ was a meeting with a composer I deeply admire: Jean-Philippe Rameau. So while still working on the ‘main’ piece for JONG (‘Al Norte de los Pirineos’) I decided to give them a little extra present and arranged the ‘Encuentro con Jean-Philippe Rameau’ for them.